


Underneath the Bandages

by philsdrill



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Blood and Injury, Fainting, Fluff, Head Injury, Hospitals, Injury, M/M, Masturbation, Phan - Freeform, Phan Fluff, Phandom - Freeform, Phanfiction, Vomit, Vomiting, phanfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-26
Updated: 2018-05-26
Packaged: 2019-05-14 02:35:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14760965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/philsdrill/pseuds/philsdrill
Summary: Dan hits his head whilst masturbating, and despite being rather awkward, the incident brings him closer with his best friend, Phil.





	Underneath the Bandages

**Author's Note:**

> If you feel like you've read this before, I posted this in January 2017 on tumblr. Also if anyone's interested in following me on tumblr - I'm more active on there and there's more fics - you can find me at [philsdrill](https://philsdrill.tumblr.com).

**Phil's POV:**

A loud thump from Dan’s room interrupted the TV programme I was watching. At first I thought it was nothing, but as I replayed the sound in my head, it started to bother me. He probably just dropped something, he was known for his butterfingers, but something made me worry that it could be something serious.

I turned the volume off on the TV and called out his name, “DAN!?”

There was no reply.

To ease my mind I decided I would go and check everything was okay. I stood up, slipping my phone into my pocket and made my way to Dan’s room. The door was shut, so I knocked, again saying Dan’s name loudly. When there was again no reply, I decided I would go in. I guess he could be asleep and maybe the noise came from the neighbours, but something in the back of my mind told me that I needed to know.

I opened the door and was met with a sight that I had not prepared myself to see; Dan lying, naked, on the floor.

I could see that one of his hands and his stomach were covered in a white substance. That, along with his nakedness, told me what he’d been doing. However, there was one problem, he seemed to be unconscious.

I rushed over to his side to try and figure out what had happened? Had he been masturbating lying on the floor and passed out? Had he been on the bed and fallen off? Had he hurt himself or simply fainted? Ignoring his nakedness, I knelt down beside him to check of his pulse and attempt to look for any visible signs of injury.

His pulse was there and his breathing seemed okay, but he was completely unresponsive when I said his name. I contemplated what I should do next; if he had fainted he would probably wake up from it fairly soon, but I guess if he didn’t I should phone an ambulance.

I decided to put him into the recovery position, which was hopefully the right thing to do. I wasn’t one hundred percent sure if I’d done it right, but I had him on his side with his head supported. I continued to keep checking his pulse and breathing, hoping that he would wake up and everything would be fine. It was scary, not knowing what was wrong, and I kept wondering whether I should maybe just phone an ambulance already, but on the other hand, if he’d just fainted, then he would probably be fine.

A small twitch from Dan’s hand gave me hope. He moved his hand a tiny bit again, then let out a low groaning sound.

“Dan,” I said softly, “I’m here, are you okay?”

Dan let out another groan, and next thing I knew he was throwing up onto his carpet. I grabbed some tissues from his bedside table to try and clean things up a tiny bit, but before I could do anything, he was throwing up again. He wasn’t choking, and at that I was glad to have remembered about the recovery position.

“Dan,” I said, again trying to see if he was responding, “Can you hear me?”

“Phiwwghh,” he mumbled roughly, and I guessed that was an attempt at my name.

“Are you hurt?” I asked him, “Are you able to tell me any of what happened?”

“Mmmhead sorr,” he said, somewhat indistinguishably.

“Your head hurts?” I asked.

“…f-fell from bed,” he mumbled, “Think I hit in the table.”

From Dan’s throwing up and confused speech, I realised that this was pretty serious. “Dan, I’m going to call 999; it sounds like you’ve hit your head pretty bad. Do your best to stay conscious.”

I pulled my phone out of my pocket, took a deep breath and called the number. I spoke to the call handler who I gave our address to, she kept speaking to me while she got the information passed on to a nearby hospital’s ambulance crew, telling me how to look after Dan while I waited for them to arrive.

Whilst on the phone and doing my best to keep Dan conscious, I did a couple of other things to prepare for him having to go to hospital. To save him some dignity when the paramedics arrived, I wiped the cum from his stomach, abdomen and hands, then wrapped a blanket around his middle so that he wasn’t quite so exposed. I did my best to clean some of the vomit from the carpet, but there was only so much I could do without using the cleaning products that I would have to leave the room to get.

I slid Dan’s phone into my other pocket, and gathered him some clothes, which I shoved in a backpack I found in his room. Hopefully this was nothing too bad and he’d get let back home today.

When at last I heard the sirens approaching, I got up to press the button to let them into the building. It was weird to think that the sirens were for us, rather than blaring past to attend to an unknown emergency elsewhere.

I had to leave Dan to let them into our flat, and I felt like I had never run so fast in my life. I hurried back up the stairs with the crew of paramedics hot on my heels, taking them to Dan.

After carrying out some checks, they carefully manoevered him onto a stretcher, one of the paramedics speaking to him, even though he wasn’t making much sense. I was invited to come along in the ambulance, so I grabbed the rucksack of clothes for Dan and my keys, then followed them down the stairs.

In the ambulance, the paramedics hooked Dan up to some sort of machine, and made sure his head was completely secured. He still seemed a bit dazed and confused, but I could see a scared expression in his eyes.

“I’m still here,” I told Dan, taking his hand, whilst trying not to think about what I just wiped off it, “We’re going to the hospital; you’re going to be okay.”

With living in London, the hospital wasn’t too far away. I kept my focus on talking to Dan, letting the paramedics do whatever they were doing. I had to move away once or twice to let them in, but I was doing my best to be there for him.

When we got to the hospital, Dan was taken into A&E for some scans, and I was made to wait in the waiting room. It was nerve-wracking, waiting for someone to come and tell me how he was doing, despite the paramedics having been positive about his condition. I didn’t want to move my focus outside of the waiting room, in case someone were to call on me about Dan, so I left my phone and it’s games in my pocket and watched the other people in the waiting room.

Tired, anxious and sad expressions covered a lot of the faces in the room. Likely everyone here was in a similar situation to myself, anxiously awaiting news about how a loved one was doing. For some, the news would be good, for others, not so much. I was pretty sure that Dan would be fine, but the atmosphere of the room made me start to worry. What if he suffered severe brain damage and couldn’t remember a thing? What would we do then?

A lady started crying in the corner, and I wondered what had happened to her. Had whoever she was waiting for died? It was a scary thought, thinking that so many people in this room could be about to hear some seriously bad news. What if I was one of them? No, no, that couldn’t happen, not to Dan, not from a little fall like that. A clear-headed Phil would’ve gone over to the lady and offered her a tissue, tried to be of assistance, but I was currently in a jumbled state, my worry for Dan filling any space I had for worrying about anyone else.

My knee starting shaking in a way Dan would’ve told me was annoying, and I tried my best to stop it, but the anxiety was too much. I wasn’t prone to suffering from anxiety, but I think anyone would be nervous in my situation. I tried to take deep breaths to calm myself down, and it worked to an extent, but I was still anxious deep down.

Waiting always seems to take a long time, but eventually I was called up, the receptionist asking if anyone was here for Daniel Howell? I got to my feet and made my way over to the desk, where a nurse awaited to speak to me.

“Are you Mr Howell’s family?” she asked.

“Uhh…” I hesitated, not finding it in my capability to lie, “Almost, we’re best friends, live together and have done for six years. His closest family is a couple of hours away.”

“That’s fine,” she said cheerily, “If you come with me, I’ll take you to see him. He’s awake, though he may be a little confused from the medication we’ve had him on. He has fractured his skull, a closed fracture, which means it is a relatively minor injury with no damage to his brain.”

“Oh thank god,” I said, letting out a sigh of relief.

“However, he is suffering from concussion and is in a fair bit of pain,” she told me, “We will continue to monitor him throughout the day, but if all goes well you might be able to take him home today.”

“Okay, great,” I said, “I hope he manages that; I’m sure he’d rather be at home if he could.”

The nurse led me into a ward, where there were a couple of other patients, but my focus landed on Dan. He was lying in a bed, a lot of cushioning around his head, but looking okay.

“I’ll leave you with him,” she told me, turning to leave again, “There’s the button to call for assistance if you need it. I think the doctor will be in soon to check up on Dan.”

I thanked her, before wandering over to Dan’s bed, taking a plastic chair with me as I went.

“Hey, Dan,” I said, sitting down next to him, “How’re you doing?”

“Alright?” he said, almost questioning his response, “Well as alright as one can feel with a fucked skull and a conc-conker-conker…son.”

“Ahh,” I said, chuckling softly, “The nurse told me that your brain is okay though, which I’m glad about.”

“Mmm that’s good,” Dan said, “I’m glad he’s okay. Brian’s a nice guy.”

“Are those marshmallows on my head? Can I eat them?” Dan asked, lazily reaching one arm up to touch some of the dressings and bandages on his forehead.

“No, they’re bandages,” I told him, laughing, “I don’t think they’d taste nice.”

“Hmm… pity… I’m hungry,” he grumbled, “I’m tired though so maybe I’ll sleep instead of going to get food.”

“Someone’ll bring you food when it’s time,” I told him, “You might’ve missed lunch, but your doctor’s coming soon and I can ask him.”

“Ask him what?” a voice said from behind me.

I saw a man with a clipboard, who looked like a doctor, making his way over to us.

“Dan was telling me he’s hungry,” I told him, “Has he missed lunch?”

“Yeah, he will have,” the doctor said, looking at the clock, “You might want to go down and grab him something from the cafe, because it’ll take a while for me to get something organised.”

“Anyway, I’m Doctor Rogers,” he introduced himself, “You’re Dan’s…?”

“Best friend, flatmate and business partner,” I told him, “Phil.”

“Okay,” he nodded, “Did the nurse tell you his diagnosis?”

“Yeah, a …minor cracked skull and concussion?” I said, not quite remembering the term the nurse had used.

“Yeah, it’s a closed fracture, which means that the bone is cracked, but has not moved to damage any skin or tissue,” he told me, “If it had, we may have needed to operate and he could’ve had brain damage to some level.”

I heard a mutter of ‘Brian’ from Dan, but ignored him to let the doctor continue.

“He’s currently on medication to recover from the shock, medication for the pain, and antibiotics to prevent infection,” he told me, “His current state of confusion is from the combination of these along with the concussion, but he should return to normal over the course of the afternoon.”

“The nurse said he might be able to go home today; how likely is that?” I asked him.

“It is probable as long as nothing goes wrong and I deem him fit to leave, but at the moment, things are looking positive,” he told me, “If you want to pop down to the cafe and grab him a bite to eat, I’ll do some tests while you’re gone and then hopefully he’ll still be awake when you come back for some food.”

“Alright,” I said, getting to my feet, “Any restrictions on what I should get him?”

“Not really, but I’d go for something that’s quite easy to eat and doesn’t require too much chewing,” the doctor said, “We don’t want too much unnecessary movement, which chewing could provoke, and he’s tired anyway so go for something easy.”

“Okay, thanks,” I said, leaving the room and leaving Dan with the doctor.

I made my way down to the hospital’s cafe, which was near to the entrance. Despite having not been there before, I managed to locate it without much trouble. Looking through the selection of food, I decided on a soup and a cheese sandwich for Dan and a ham sandwich and a coffee for myself. I wavered for a second, wondering whether they would let me eat in Dan’s room, but the food came from within the hospital and they were letting Dan eat there so I didn’t see why not.

The walk back to Dan’s room took me a little longer, as I was trying not to spill the soup and coffee that I was carrying. Fortunately, I managed to get there without any incidents, and with both sandwiches still in tact. The doctor was speaking to Dan when I arrived so I quietly set the food down on the table next to his bed, and waited for the doctor to finish.

“Phil, do you know how Dan sustained his injury? Is your house a safe environment for him to return to this evening?” He asked me, gesturing for me to follow him outside to speak, “Dan’s not telling me much, but that’s not unusual given the confusion.”

“He fell off his bed, and I think hit it on the bedside cabinet,” I explained, not mentioning what Dan had been doing at the time, “But it should be safe to return to. I’ll need to clean the carpet because he threw up, but it should be fine other than that.”

“Had he been asleep when he fell off?” he asked, “Just if that was the case you should move the table away and cushion the floor around the bed in case it happens again.”

“No… well… umm…” I hesitated, wondering how to retain Dan’s dignity, “As far as I know he was awake… he umm… might be a little embarrassed if I told you exactly, but I think he’ll be more careful next time.”

“I’ve heard it all, Phil,” he said, “We just need to know for the record in case the information is needed on the future.”

“Uhh he was masturbating,” I said, feeling my face turn bright red, “He’d finished though.”

“Okay,” he laughed warmly, making a note of something on his clipboard, “Though this isn’t the first accident we’ve seen in result of that.”

“I’ll let you get back to him,” he said with a smile, “I suspect he’ll want some sleep and that’s completely okay, so don’t keep him from it once he’s had his lunch.”

I thanked the doctor and re-entered the ward, sitting at Dan’s bedside in the same spot as earlier.

“I got you some lunch,” I told him, moving up the tray that fitted over the bed and setting the soup and sandwich down on it.

“Thanks,” Dan mumbled, fumbling a bit with the lid but managing to make a start on the soup.

I finished my lunch a long time before Dan finished his, listening to his ramblings about sand witches and this Brian guy. When he was at last done, I put the rubbish to the side and flipped the tray back down.

Dan went quiet for a bit, looking at me tiredly but not saying much. Eventually he yawned, tried to lay back and then looked confused as to why he couldn’t.

“Hold on, I’ll get someone to put it down for you,” I told him, not understanding how to adjust the bed myself.

I poked my head out into the corridor and captured the first not-too-busy looking staff member I could see, “Could you put my friend’s bed down so he can sleep?”

The nurse dealt with the request, after me telling her that the doctor had said it was fine for him to sleep. Once she left the room, it wasn’t long before Dan was out of it. I was just contemplating what I would do while Dan was asleep, when Doctor Rogers walked back into the room. He brought another chair over and sat down next to me.

“You’ll be taking care of Dan when he goes home, right?” he asked me.

“Yeah,” I confirmed.

“Okay,” he said, “I’ll give you some pamphlets on taking care of him, but it’s pretty simple. Try your best not to leave him alone at any point in the next twenty four hours. Make sure he doesn’t do anything to strenuous; if he can, just take it easy for a day or two then that would be ideal. Make sure he has plenty of support for his head where he needs it; like have a pillow if the back of your sofa is too low, and make sure he’s sleeping comfortably. It would be an idea to put move away the bedside cabinet as a precaution; if he were to hit his head again before it heals, it would likely be serious.”

“Okay,” I nodded, taking the pamphlets from him.

“We’ll send him away with the antibiotics and some painkillers that are a bit stronger than those you get over-the-counter,” he told me, “I’ll leave you to read through these now.”

I started to read the NHS pamphlets which had titles such as ‘Healing for Head Injuries’, ‘After-Care for Fractures’ and ‘Caring for a Concussed Person’. It took me awhile to get through them, but I found myself feeling a bit more confident about taking care of Dan. He was still asleep, and remained that way until the doctor came back in.

Dr Rogers came over to say a few words to me, and in disturbing the silence, awoke Dan. Whatever he was going to say to me got forgotten, as he turned his attention to Dan.

“Hey Dan, how are you feeling?” he asked him.

“My head hurts,” he asked, “W-what happened? Where’s Phil?”

“You’ve fractured your skull, but it’s a closed fracture which means there’s no damage to your brain,” Doctor Rogers explained to him, “And Phil’s right here.”

“Hey, Dan,” I said to him to confirm that I was in fact there.

Dan slowly turned to look at me, “H-hi.”

“H-how long will it take to heal?” Dan asked nervously, “Will there be things I won’t be able to do?”

Feeling Dan’s nerves, and seeing his hand trembling slightly at his side, I took it and held it within my own.

“It’ll take over a month to fully heal, but the pain should be gone completely in around a week,” he explained, “At the moment, I want you to take a couple of days to rest and let Phil look after you. Don’t do anything to strenuous… what do you work as?”

“I work from home from my computer,” Dan told him, “I create and edit video.”

“Okay,” he said, “You’re probably good to continue with that, but take it easy.”

“In terms of what you shouldn’t do: no showers or hair washing for the next two days while you still have the bandage on, but baths are fine as long as you keep your head out of the water. You have a small wound on your scalp which should be more or less healed in two or three days,” he explained, “Also no alcohol, drugs, sleeping pills, driving or contact sports. I’ve given Phil some information and he’s going to keep a close eye on you for the next twenty-four hours.”

“Okay,” Dan nodded, “I think I can manage that.”

“Great,” Doctor Rogers said cheerily, “If you don’t mind I’m going to a quick check up, because I think you’re just about ready to go home.”

Dan let the doctor get on with the examination, and I slid my chair back, out of the way. The doctor did a couple of basic check-ups, had a look at Dan’s head under the bandage, made a couple of notes on his clipboard and finally stepped back.

“That’s you good to go home,” he told Dan, nodding at me as well, “Phil has some clothes for you, so I’ll let you get dressed. When you’re ready come out to the desk in the corridor where you can sign out and pick up your medication.”

“Okay, thank you,” Dan said, “Can I pull the curtain round because…”

“Of course,” he said, getting up to go, “I’ll do that for you.”

The doctor pulled the curtain around Dan’s bed, trapping me inside with him. I guess I would get up to go unless Dan needed some help. I lifted the rucksack of clothes I had grabbed up onto my lap and looked at Dan.

“Do you want some help with these?” I said, pulling the clothes out.

“I think I’ll manage,” Dan said, sitting up and swinging his legs out of bed, the hospital gown exposing a little more than he would’ve liked, “Oh fuck these are short.”

“Fuck, was I butt naked when… did you get an ambulance or what?” he asked.

“Yeah, I called an ambulance,” I told him, “You were really confused, throwing up on the floor and complaining that your head really hurt. I managed to establish that you’d bumped it on your bedside table. I covered you up a bit for the ambulance crew, but someone must’ve seen to get that gown on.”

“But I’d just… was I covered in… oh God no,” Dan mumbled.

“I wiped some of it off with a tissue for you,” I told him, “Sorry if that was a bit invasive but I was trying to save your dignity to some extent. You really should be more careful when masturbating.”

“I know that now,” Dan said, groaning, “It was just… good? And I think I was too into it to notice how close I was to the edge, and then I went over the edge in more ways than one. You saw everything then?”

“Well I heard a thump, called out your name, and when you didn’t respond, I went to investigate,” I told him. “You were pretty much passed out on the floor, naked and covered in cum.”

“D’you know,” Dan said, “I think I might as well let you help me get dressed. You’ve seen everything now anyway.”

“Yeah,” I laughed, digging into the bag and bringing out a pair of boxers and a pair of joggies.

I started off the process by getting them past Dan’s ankles for him, saving him from having to bend down and have all the blood rush down to his head. Once he had them pulled up the rest of the way, he was about to pull the gown up and over his head when I stopped him.

“Let me untie this at the back,” I said, “I think you’ve maybe got a bit too much cotton wool on your head.”

Helping Dan out of the hospital gown, we then had the realisation that we probably wouldn’t get the t-shirt on over his head. I tried to offer him my own button up shirt instead, but in the end we settled for him just putting his hoodie on (fortunately a zip-up one) and we’d get him properly dressed when we got home.

I finished the process by helping Dan get his shoes on, and then we were on the way to the desk to sign out. I kept close to Dan as he got to his feet. He was a little unsteady, but I put an arm around him and we were on our way.

Dan got signed out at the desk, and Doctor Rogers was there to pass him his medicine and explain the dosage. When we were ready to go, the hospital organised us a taxi. The journey home was uneventful, Dan sitting carefully so that his head wouldn’t bounce off the headrest with every bump in the road.

When we made it home, I took Dan to the living room and sat down with him for a bit. The doctor had told me to do my best to stay with him for the next twenty-four hours, but that wasn’t completely possible. Clearly, we’d have to use the bathroom sometimes and I’d have to do a bit of to-ing and fro-ing from other rooms to allow Dan to rest. One of the first things on my list was to clean Dan’s carpet, because I couldn’t leave it covered in vomit much longer. I grabbed an old towel, some kitchen roll, disinfectant and carpet cleaner and got to work.

After a while of rubbing and scrubbing, I decided that I had done the best that I was going to manage. I returned the cleaning products to their rightful places and washed my hands.

“Hey,” I said, as I returned to the living room where Dan was watching some TV, “How’re you doing? I think I’ve cleaned all of the puke off of your carpet.”

“M’okay,” Dan said, “And thanks for doing that, I’m sorry it happened in the first place. I can’t believe I’m such an idiot.”

“It’s fine,” I laughed, “Though I’m slightly curious how it was that good that you managed to fall off your bed!?”

“Umm,” Dan laughed, looking a bit embarrassed, “Let’s say I just got the right spot at the right moment, or maybe the wrong moment.”

“Wow,” I laughed, “This is going to be a good one to tease you about.”

“Shut up, Phil; I hate you,” Dan said jokingly.

“Oh by the way,” Dan started, “All your fans are wondering if you’re still doing a liveshow; I think you said last week you’d be back tonight at half seven… it’s quarter to eight.”

“Ahhh, I’d completely forgotten about that,” I said, “I’d better tweet and let them know I won’t be doing one.”

“You should,” Dan said, “Like don’t let me being slightly injured stop you. I can just sit here quietly.”

“Alright, but I’ll make it a short one,” I told him, “Shall I do it at eight?”

“Sounds good,” Dan replied, “That’ll give you time to get your laptop set up and figure out what to say.”

Taking my phone out of my pocket and typing up a quick tweet, I let my fans know what was going on.

_Liveshow will be at eight rather than 7:30, sorry for making you guys wait_

I sat at the other end of the sofa from Dan, in my usual liveshow spot. He was now using his laptop rather than the TV, making the room quiet for my YouNow. As I logged into the website, I paused to ask Dan a question.

“Someone’s going to ask what I’ve been doing today, what should I say?” I asked him.

Dan looked thoughtful for a minute and then replied, “Tell them what happened, but whatever you do, don’t mention the masturbating. You can say that you were at the hospital with me as I fell off my bed and cracked my skull. I likely won’t do a show on Tuesday because of this and it’s best someone explains properly. Make sure they know I’m okay; some of them are a bunch of worriers and they shouldn’t have to worry about me.”

“Okay,” I nodded, taking a mental note of what roughly to say, “You still good to sit there quietly? Let me know if you need anything though?”

“Yup,” Dan replied, “I’m good.”

I waited until the clock in the top right corner of my laptop clicked over to 20:00, then clicked the ‘Go Live’ button. People started to arrive immediately, and after about thirty seconds a good number were there. I said hi to a bunch of people, tweeted the link to the liveshow, and said hi to a few more people as they started to arrive.

As I’d expected, it wasn’t long before the usual question of “ _Where’s Dan?_ ” appeared in the chat.

“Where’s Dan,” I repeated the question to let them know which question I was answering, “He’s at the other end of the sofa.”

_Get Dan over. Get Dan. Can Dan say hi? Bring Dan into shot. Show us._

A number of requests appeared in the chat, and I knew that Dan wouldn’t want to be on camera. I picked out the one about Dan saying hi; he could manage that; “Dan, they want you to say hi.”

Dan called out a hello from the other end of the sofa. This satisfied the viewers to an extend, but there were still some spamming the chat. Ignoring that I changed the topic, reading through a few premium messages, naming someone’s new cactus and responding to some generic questions such as “ _How are you?_ ” and “ _How are your houseplants?_ ”

Eventually I caught sight of the question that I knew I had to answer at some point, “ _What have you been doing today?_ ”

“Well… that’s a bit of a story,” I started, “I’ve been at the hospital, with Dan. He fell off his bed this morning, hit his head and fractured his skull.”

The chat was suddenly filled with exclamations of shock and queries of “ _Is he okay?_ ”

“He’s fine,” I told them, “It’s a really minor fracture, like a little crack, so no brain damage or anything fortunately.”

“Everyone hopes you get better soon,” I told Dan, reading through the messages in the chat.

“Thank you guys,” Dan responded loudly so the laptop mic would pick it up, “I’m not really looking or feeling up to coming on camera, but I’m okay; a bit tired and sore, but don’t worry about me, Phil’s been instructed to keep a close eye on me.”

That conversation slowly petering out, I moved back onto something else, meaning Dan no longer had to speak to the liveshow. I started talking about my previous AmazingPhil video, then got onto the topic of our most recent gaming video, an episode of Sims, where Dil, as usual, had embarrassed himself in some shape or form.

I noticed Dan looking over at me like he wanted to say something, so I turned my attention away from the laptop and towards Dan.

“I’m just gonna go to the bathroom,” he whispered to me.

I muted the microphone so I could reply properly to Dan, “Are you good on your own? Obviously, I wouldn’t come in, but…”

“I’m good,” he said, getting up from the sofa and heading towards the door.

I unmuted the liveshow and turned my attention back to it, not really explaining to the fans why I muted it. I’m sure they would figure out for themselves that I was just saying something to Dan that I would rather not have heard by thousands of our followers.

As it was nearing the half hour mark, and this was just a short one, I started drawing the liveshow to a close. I was keeping an ear out for Dan on his way back, thinking that he might like to say goodbye from afar too.

I heard Dan outside the door, then it opened and he walked in. I looked over at him, about to ask if he wanted to come and say bye, but I felt something wasn’t right. Dan seemed to have a sway in his step, and when I looked closer, I noticed he looked a bit dazed and pale.

“Two minutes guys,” I said, laying the laptop down and jumping to my feet.

“Dan, you okay?” I asked him, hurrying towards him as he looked like he was about to pass out.

“Mmm,” was all Dan said before I saw his knees buckle and him start to slide down.

I brought my arms around him and lowered him slowly to the floor. I sat down with him, and was contemplating exactly what I did next when I noticed that he was still conscious, peering out of half shut eyelids at me.

“S-sorry, I just b-blacked out for a second,” Dan stuttered, “I felt a bit dizzy when I was up.”

I grabbed a cushion from the sofa and got Dan to lay down on his side, resting his head on it, “You stay there. I’m going to end the liveshow, I’ll be right back.”

I moved across to the sofa where I had left my laptop. It was facing away, which was good, but I don’t know what all they had heard.

“Sorry guys,” I need to go, I said, bending down so my head was in shot, despite at a funny angle, “Dan nearly fainted so I’m going to get him a drink of water and some dinner. He’ll be fine, it’ll just be a result of his head injury.”

I said a quick bye to everyone, not listing names like I usually I would. I clicked the end broadcast button and then shut over my laptop.

I sat down on the floor next to Dan and looked into his eyes, “Are you still feeling dizzy or are you okay now you’re down here?”

“I’m okay now,” he said, “Can I get up?”

“Yes, but slowly,” I told him, “And you’re only going as far as the sofa at the moment.”

I gave Dan a hand up and made sure he got back to the sofa okay, before running to the kitchen to get him a glass of water. While I was there I stuck a ready meal pasta in the microwave for dinner, thinking that he could probably do with some energy as he hadn’t eaten since lunch.

I took Dan the water, and then, when it was ready, the food. We ate dinner together on the sofa, having a light conversation about Dan’s plans for the next week or so while he recovered. Afterwards, we put on a film, both us a bit tired from our eventful day and not having the energy to much else.

We picked out a title that neither of us had seen or heard about, sometimes a risky choice. However, the filmed seemed to have a reasonable plot and character development and we both found ourselves enjoying it. As it neared the end, there was a sudden climax, where one of the characters died. It shouldn’t have been unexpected, the whole film had had subtle hints leading up to it, but it caught us off guard. As the credits rolled so too did the tears down Dan’s cheeks. I moved closer to him and opened up my arms for a hug; he was way more sensitive when tired. Dan buried his face in my chest and I closed my arms around him.

It took a while for Dan to stop crying, the piled up emotions proving too much. Perhaps I should have put on something that I knew for sure was light-hearted. Dan remained in my arms for a bit longer, and I spoke to him softly as his tears started to dry up.

“Do you want to go to bed fairly soon?” I asked him, “I can tell you’re tired.”

“Yeah I might,” he said, “Could I have a bath first though because I’m still a bit gross and sticky from this morning?”

“Oh yeah, sure,” I replied with a laugh, “Do you want me to go and run you one?”

“Mmm… okay,” Dan said, disentangling his legs from mine.

“You’re just liking these cuddles, aren’t you?” I teased him, getting up from the sofa.

“… yeah,” Dan replied, his cheeks turning a little pink.

Laughing, I turned away and headed out of the room, going down the stairs to the bathroom. I got the bath running and then came back up to get Dan. Once he had clean underwear and pyjamas, I came with him back down the stairs to the bathroom.

“C-could…. Would you mind staying with me?” Dan asked, “I’m kinda worried in case I pass out, and you’ve seen it all anyway so…”

“Yeah, of course,” I said, “I’ll sit down over here on the floor, that way you’ll have a bit of privacy.

Dan got into the bath, and I sat down in my chosen spot on the floor. He turned out to be absolutely fine, but we were both glad that I was there in case something did happen. When he was out, we both finished getting ready for bed, and before long Dan was in his room and I had settled down on my bed with my current book.

I had predicted that Dan would be fast asleep in no time; he had looked really tired. However, I was proven wrong when a knock sounded on my door and a miserable looking Dan walked in.

“Phil, I never got to wash my sheets earlier and they’re all gross and slippery and sticky from this morning and I’m not gonna be able to sleep because I don’t have any spare ones and I’m so tired that I don’t have the energy to think of something else and I don’t know what to do,” Dan cried, all of his words rushing into one and being followed up by large, uncontrollable sobs.

“Dan, c'mere,” I said to him, putting my book down and patting the space next to me on my bed.

Dan took a few trembly steps over to the bed and plopped himself down next to me, where he hid his face in his hands and continued to cry.

“Dan, it’s okay,” I told him, moving over to hug him, “How about you sleep here with me? Share my sheets? They’re clean enough.”

“I-is that okay? Are you sure?” Dan asked worriedly.

“Yup,” I said cheerily, “You take that side, I’m going to move the table away and put a couple cushions down like the doctor suggested as a precaution.”

I moved the piece of furniture and put a few spare cushions on the floor as Dan lay down in the bed. I climbed in next to him and turned off the light, and slid over a little towards Dan, who was still crying a little. Dan, without asking this time, nuzzled his way into my arms, but whilst keeping his head resting on the pillow.

“You get some sleep,” I told him, “I’ll be right here if you need me.”

Dan thanked me, before readjusting his position and relaxing a little more. I guess what we were doing counted as cuddling, but I think we were close enough as friends that almost all physical boundaries had gone out of the window. Dan’s slightly ridiculous sounding accident had brought us closer and I hoped it would stay this way. It’s funny how the silliest of happenings can have a positive effect on our lives.

I held Dan close, breathed in his warm scent, and let myself fall asleep to the sound of his breathing. Maybe what’s underneath the bandages would heal better than it started out, this could be the beginnings of our relationship changing for the better.


End file.
